PEDROSA LEADS THE WAY ON THE FIRST DAY AT DONINGTON

The British Grand Prix weekend began today at Donington Park with Repsol Honda’s star rookie Dani Pedrosa setting the pace during both free practice sessions. The 20-year-old Spaniard, who now lives in London, was quickly on the pace at the sweeping 4.023km (2.500 miles) circuit in the heart of the English midlands, despite riding the challenging track for the first time on a MotoGP bike.

The reigning 250cc world champion was especially impressive in the afternoon where he recorded the three fastest laps of the one-hour session, setting a best lap of 1m 28.970s – over a second inside the existing lap record. Showing impressive consistency, Pedrosa was the only rider to dip into the 1m 28s bracket.

Nicky Hayden finished a tight session just 0.587s behind his team-mate after continuing the development work on his evolution RC211V, including testing a new chassis. The 24-year-old American comes into the weekend with a 42-point lead in the riders’ world championship and full of confidence after his spectacular win in Assen last weekend where notched up his first victory of 2006.

In an extremely close day of MotoGP practice the top 13 riders were covered by less than a second which should make for an exciting qualifying session tomorrow afternoon.

Nicky Hayden 9th – 1m 29.557s

“We were trying a new chassis today and we were testing a few different things on each bike. One felt a lot better on the front and the other felt better on the rear, so hopefully tomorrow we can combine the settings and we’ll be a lot closer. We closed the gap from this morning’s session which is good, though we haven’t started off the first day as fast as we’d have liked again so we’ve still got some work to do here. It’s not that easy though – it’s always a compromise so we’ll come in here tomorrow and try to make a big step. Half a second is quite a lot, and qualifying tomorrow is going to be really important, so we’ll see what we do.”

Dani Pedrosa 1st – 1m 28.970s

“It went pretty well today and we had a good day of practice. The weather was good, it was warm and the Michelins were working well so I’m happy with how it’s gone. I’m at the top of the times today but I’m not reading too much into this yet. Tomorrow will be important because we’ll learn more about the race tyre choice and we also need to do a good job in qualifying because the times at this track are so close – this is going to be critical for a good race. It’s my first time on a MotoGP at Donington and the RC211V feels very powerful here, especially on the last part of the track. Plus we spend a lot of time braking which is hard for the shoulders and arms – it’s pretty tiring. Still, I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”

Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager

“Thankfully it’s very good weather and we had a very good start with good condtions. In both sessions Dani made good progress with his set-up and he looks strong for this weekend. He put in his best times at the end of his long runs so I think he has a very good feeling. He can continue to make progress tomorrow. Nicky tried a new chassis today and therefore has more things to test than usual. If you only look at the timesheets then he’s not right at the top, but the progress is not bad today and I’m sure he can set a good time tomorrow. I’m confident because Nicky is really showing his ability. Last year Honda had a very difficult race here, so this year’s good start means we’re definitely looking forward to the race.”

wtf.... I dont get it , wouldnt you think they would just let him concentrate on getting the old chassis perfect, its almost like they keep pushing him trying to make him crack with the damn development stuff he has done this year

or they know once Rossi is healthy they still need to find some more time, and they are trying to find it now

ill bet he can set up a new bike infinatly faster than he could before this year , so i guess in some ways its good

It's nto the setup that keeps them behind Rossi, it's the rider...

Put Rossi on the Honda this year and he would be smoking them more than he is on the Yamaha....

The Yamaha is behind the Honda as far as chassis and ride-ability.

You remember Rossi on the Honda in his last year with them......... Nothing touched him or even close.......



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I agree vcyclenut, he's leading the points standings, just let him concentrate on one bike. I could see if he was 5th in the standings, but he's leading. I think they need to let him concentrate on winning the title...

I agree, somewhat. Schwantz said in today's world it is 90% bike, and 10% rider though

I thought that it was the other way around.

and how did edwards do on the Honda????

You never perform well when popping your cherry :



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lol, ohh yea he was cherry, world superbike champion, cherry

Well , who developed that M1 into the pile of shit it seems to be right now then ?

It's not a pile of shiat........... You are reading things into my post that just aren't there.

What I'm saying is the Honda is a little better PACKAGE...... The fact that Rossi is riding the Yamaha makes up the difference to enable him to smoke the honda's.

If you have been watching MotoGP for the last 6 years or so, this would be very clear.



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I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Rossi is such an awesome talent and has dominated for so long , that his loyal fans have a hard time coming to grips with his strangle hold on the championships coming to an end.

Wait till the end of the year before you start celebrating, you never know what might happen. Things change very fast in racing, look back to 1992 when Doohan was leading the championship by a huge margin. And that year Honda had the best bike period.

haha saint

It's not that we have a hard time coming to grips with his strangle hold on the championships coming to an end... it's just the way how he's losing it...

I do agree that this year the competition is much closer like vcyclenut stated on the other thread... however I don't understand why Hayden fans still don't see that Rossi is still on top of the game...

8 races

1 -> rant off by someone

2 -> real technical failures

1 -> fractured wrist and angle

The other 4 "normal" races, he still able to win 3 of those... what's so hard to understand?

I'm not saying Hayden is going to win it , or celebrating it early , I'm talking about Hayden , Pedrosa , etc... There's finally more than one possible winner to this year's championship and I'm glad it's that way. I hate it for Rossi to have bad luck , but I also hate it when someone else has bad luck and the same fans blaming bad luck and listing Rossi's excuses would be some of the same ones saying this rider or that rider is done because of the same things they see as evidently only realistic excuses if it involves Valentino

Nicky's crew should take a page out of the same book that Rossi's did and put the developed bike back under him. Didn't they swap out to last year's chassis ?

I doubt that Honda will put a chassis on there that is not better in all ways than the old one. Their R&D is incredible.

I guess we just need to realize where you are from.....


Don't get me wrong I'm a nicky fan also, hhe's just not up to the level of Rossi yet...... Yes he is ahead in points but like it has been laid out several times - it's due to bad luck for the most part....

When is the BBQ



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That's my point .. i said it many times as well ...

That was hands down the best championship of the last 20 years in my opinion.

part of it is probably that I was very young so it was all still superhuman to me (I woulda been 8).

But seriosly, the top 3 riders in the championship where riding injured. The winner only ended up the winner 'cause he was willing to sacrifice the most in order to get back on the bike cleanest and fastest (had his finger amputated 'cause he would be able to ride at 100% 2 races earlier)

and for the record, there was a rider that year with a turd bike and an incredibly nasty wrist injury that went out and won races. I hope to see a repeat of this tommorow.